Ireland's Independence (revised)
by RavenclawGirl777
Summary: The young and rebellious spirit of Katie Colum Butler is what fuels the clan beneath the ground to continue their fight for independence for Ireland, however, when two unexpected guests arrive, Katie must do all she can to keep the ones she cares for alive. Story will be much better than this summary. I changed the story line a bit and made Scarlett 16 in roughly 1854.
1. Prologue

Whenever one hears the word 'Ireland', they cannot help but think of green. Emerald green hills, olive trees with leaves that dance in the moist winds, mint green moss growing on ancient castles that have long since been abandoned. One might ask an Irishman how long the lands have been green, and he shall answer, "as long as I can remember, as long as my father before me, as long as his father before him." The truth in it is that Ireland is a naturally luscious green land with irresistibly desirable fertile lands that glittered like green diamonds in the Irish rain and sun. It was natural, the Irish reasoned, for their lands to be desired by such forces as the English, but to the Irish, the land was theirs, not free for taking.

Peppering the Irish countryside were thousands of stone structures, whether they be ancient churches or abandoned castles or low stone walls marking boundaries. Many an honest man hath walked upon those noble stone walls, feeling the wind blow through their thick dark Irish hair, stinging their brilliantly sky blue or earthly green eyes with moist winds bringing heavenly and cleansing rain.

When the English ruled the emerald lands, revolution was boiling over the cauldrons of Irish families throughout the nation, especially in a county known as County Meath near the town of Ballyhara. Long ago, the land of Ballyhara had been stolen from its O'Hara owners by the English and then left to rot. The land was once beautiful, long before it was cursed by English blood. A young rebel sat upon a low stone wall with a gorgeous green tree hovering above her head, the wind blowing through her dark Celtic hair, the wind stinging her emerald green eyes. Into the wind, she muttered an ancient song sung to her by her aunt, and her aunt's mother, and her aunt's mother's mother, and so on.

_Come, thou Fount of every blessing, _

_Tune my heart to sing thy grace_

_Streams of mercy, never ceasing, _

_Call for songs of loudest praise. _

_Teach me some melodious sonnet, _

_Sung by flaming tongues above. _

…

_Here I raise mine Ebenezer_

_Hither by thy help I'm come_

_And I hope, by thy good pleasure, _

_Safely to arrive at home. _

_Jesus sought me when a stranger, _

_Wandering from the fold of God_

_He, to rescue me from danger, _

_Interposed his precious blood. _

…

_O to grace how great a debtor _

_Daily I'm constrained to be! _

_Let thy goodness, like a fetter, _

_Bind my wandering heart to thee. _

_Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, _

_Prone to leave the God I love _

_Here's my heart, O take and seal it, _

_Seal it for thy courts above._

The young girl of sixteen hadn't a single idea how old the song was, nor what it meant, but it held a special place in her heart. One day, she'd sing it to her children, and hope that her children sang it to their children and so on. There was no reason for a tradition to be broken, and the young girl would see to it that her wishes were carried out. Things had been rough for the young girl; she was what was considered a 'bastard child', a result of an affair between an unmarried couple that she had assumed had never gotten together. She never met her mother… Her mother was an American, she knew that much, and her mother sent her to live with her dear aunt, who was infertile, and uncle in Ireland.

As a young child, the girl had been beaten by a British officer, and she had a scar across her chest as a reminder of it. He had slashed her across the chest with his sword when she refused to let him speak with her aunt and uncle about taking up residence in her home. Her uncle had chased off the officer and the young girl was nursed back to health.

When the young girl was ten years of age, her uncle took her to America in hopes of gaining Irish support against the British in American towns such as Savannah and Atlanta. The girl had served as a nurse in an Atlanta hospital, and could clearly remember a woman with dark hair constantly moaning about all the gangrene and death in the hospital. The thought of that woman made her laugh. In America at the time, they were experiencing a civil war between their northern and southern states over slavery, and the young girl and her uncle had been unable to leave America until 1866, when they could travel north and catch a ship back to Ireland.

As a young woman at the age of sixteen – only a few months prior to her sitting on the stone wall – the young girl was appointed to the leader of her clan, which lived in a cove far beneath the ground and out of English hands. Originally, it had belonged to her uncle's cousin, but when he passed, he willed the clan to what he considered his young niece. The young woman's aunt and uncle weren't really her aunt and uncle, they were her grandfather's cousin and his wife, but she felt close enough to them to call them 'Auntie' and 'Uncle'.

As the wind gave a strong gust, an aroma of rain surrounded the young woman, and above her, darkened clouds began to thunder. In the distance, she could see the rain pouring down over the hills of her beloved land. _I must get out of here, or I'll be soaked! _she thought to herself, and she left the stone wall.

The young girl's name was Katie Colum Butler.


	2. Chapter 1

"Oh, you cruel thing! You cruel, vile thing!" shouted Scarlett O'Hara Butler to the man that was her husband. He laughed, his white teeth showing in a playful smile.

"Oh, but last night, you thanked me for every minute of it!" said Scarlett's husband, Rhett Butler, laughing and smiling in the way that made Scarlett's heart melt. But she wouldn't let that part of her show. He was the one who had left her, he was the one who said that their marriage had fallen apart and that he no longer loved her, yet, the previous night, he had come to her bedroom as a drunken fool and had violated her! How dare he laugh in her face!

"You are a cruel man, Rhett Butler, and I want you out of my room!" Scarlett shouted back at him, pointing to the door.

"Need I correct you, my dear, that this bedroom is mine and has been all my life," said Rhett in his Charleston drawl. They were currently in Charleston, South Carolina having a shootout in Rhett's childhood bedroom. Scarlett had followed him from her home in Atlanta in hopes of being there for him when he fell in love with her again. Of course, he hadn't fallen for her again, or he was denying it. Scarlett could never know with Rhett. She never knew anything when it came to Rhett Butler.

"Just leave, please! You'll do it later anyhow, so why don't you do it when I can stand it?" Scarlett told him, her voice laced with tears. She sat down on the bed, not daring to look at him. "I can't keep doing this… Falling in love with you and then you leaving me…"

"Keep in mind, Scarlett, that the second time I left you, it was because you were a horrid wife to me and chased after another woman's husband. The first time was for your protection," Rhett told her in a serious tone.

"Oh, don't tell me the things that I already know! I admit that I was a fool for chasing after Ashley, but I was happy with you! My pride just didn't let me enjoy that happiness… And it didn't let you enjoy it either," Scarlett replied.

"I will tell you right now, Scarlett O'Hara, that I enjoyed every heart-warming minute of our marriage. I was happy, until you denied me my rightful place in our – or should I say your – bedroom."

"I was a fool and I know it… I need not to be reminded of my idiocy of the past… But why did you leave me the first time? You knew that I loved you and wanted to be with you."

"You would have been forced to marry too young and looked at as a whore. I cared for you too much to do such a thing to you. The safest thing to do was to keep us separated. I was forced to change my mind when I saw you that day at the barbecue."

"Even though I was married with a child, you still chased after me. Well, Mr. Rhett Butler, aren't you a hypocrite for going after a married woman?"

"It was different with me. I didn't flaunt my affection for you and didn't lead you on, unlike the way you spoke with the honourable Mr. Wilkes." Rhett spat out the last word like it was something horrible.

"So you did love me?"

"Yes, Scarlett, I did love you. Could I say that about now? I'm not so sure anymore." Scarlett looked down at her feet, tears fighting their way to the surface of her eyes, but she held them back. "If you want a divorce after my revelation and my actions, I will gladly grant you one."

"But I don't want a divorce, Rhett!" Scarlett exclaimed, looking at him.

"Then what do you want from me?" Rhett asked her. Scarlett stood and walked to him, stopping right in front of him. In her emerald eyes was pure love, desire and pain.

"I want you to love me… I want you to treasure me the way you did that evening in the barn, when I was a girl and you a very handsome young man. I want you to hold me every night and whisper sweet nothings into my hair… I want you to kiss me and tell me you love me…" she told him with pure honesty. Rhett sighed and tore his eyes from her.

"Things have changed, Scarlett… I'm not that same man anymore," he told her, and he turned. "If you don't want the divorce, then fine. But until you leave, I will no longer be taking residence here in Charleston. If I don't, I'll go mad… I'll either kill you or fall in love with you all over again." Without another word, he left, and Scarlett let her tears escape and collapsed into a heap on the ground. She had never wanted a single person more in her life, not even Ashley Wilkes. It took everything that Scarlett had to not scream and cry out for her beloved.

After a few minutes, she stopped, sat up and wiped her eyes. She decided that no one, not even Rhett Butler, would destroy her. She stood with confidence and decided where she was going to go, and she called for her ladies' maid, Pansy, to help pack her things.

"Hurry up, Pansy, I want to be on that train as soon as possible. Pa's got Irish relatives in Savannah who will gladly help me get my mind off of that varmint!"


	3. Chapter 2

Katie returned to her family's small cottage farmhouse soaked to the bone and she ducked inside as the thunder sounded ahead. She took off her forest green cape and hung it on a hook on the wall, and jumped in surprise when her plump, grey-haired aunt appeared and started lecturing her.

"Where have ye been, Katie Colum? Look at ye! Soaked to the bone! Ye'll catch yer death at this rate! How many times have I told ya, Katie Colum, to never go out on a day that smells like rain?" exclaimed Mary O'Hara, waving her wooden spoon angrily in the air.

"Ach, Auntie _aroon_, I apologize deeply!" the young girl exclaimed, exposing her palms in surrender. "Do calm down before ye give yerself a heart attack! Ye know that me little heart would be broken! And besides, there hasn' been a single day that hasn' smelled of rain in many years!"

"Oh, Katie Colum! You and yer charmin' ways. I guess it could be worse. Ye could be on Tara's hills dancin' naked withou' a cloak te hide yer beauteous head," said Mary O'Hara, relaxing her strained arms. Katie laughed and kissed her aunt's cheek.

"Auntie, when is Colum te return? I miss 'im terribly!" she exclaimed, all signs of happiness gone and replaced with longing.

"'e said he'd be here within the next month when he left," said Mary O'Hara.

"But that was a month ago!" Katie exclaimed.

"Then perhaps 'e's on his way right now," said Mary, walking into the kitchen.

"I hope so… I can't run this entire clan on me own. I need Colum te keep me head straight," said Katie.

"Oh, Katie Colum _aroon_, yer doin' fine! The clan is happy and the English haven' the slightest idea!" said Mary, taking a knife and cutting up some potatoes.

"And they won' have the slightest idea if ye stop talkin' about it so loudly, Mary _aroon_!" said Katie's elderly uncle, Joseph O'Hara.

"Joseph O'Hara, ye hush yer mouth! Ye don' know a thing about what the English think!" shouted Mary, hitting his chest with the wooden spoon that she had had before.

"Well, I do hope that they don' know a thing!" exclaimed Joseph. "I must go down to the cellar. If anythin' goes wrong, ye call fer me."

"Aye, Uncle," said Katie, watching him leave. Joseph O'Hara wasn't a very strong man physically, but mentally, he was the smartest and wisest in the clan. And that was why they placed him at the most obvious entrance of the tunnels. Each of the other tunnels had stronger and younger guards, however, he owned the home that hid the main entrance. He could protect that entrance better than any of the younger or stronger guards of other entrances could. "Do ye think Colum will bring back cousin Kathleen?"

"One can only hope. What a darlin' young thing, that Kathleen, and a mighty pretty one, too. But not as darlin' nor as pretty as you, Katie _aroon_," said Mary.

"Auntie, don' flatter me. Kathleen is clearly prettier than I," said Katie. Just as Mary opened her mouth to rebut, commotion was heard outside.

"Gael's wrath! What is goin' on out there?" Mary exclaimed in surprise, and she and Katie rushed outside. Across the road from them was another cottage farmhouse that was currently being burned. Another eviction. The widow who owned the cottage hadn't made enough money to pay the raised rents, and now English soldiers were evicting her and her children and burning the home to keep her out. And the rain had stopped, which made putting out the fire all that much harder.

"Oi!" shouted Katie, gaining the attention of the British soldiers.

"Katie Colum!" exclaimed Mary in a whispered shock, but Katie didn't listen. Instead, she stormed angrily over to the soldiers.

"Have ye no heart?" Katie demanded.

"Stay out of this, girl. This isn't any of your business," said one of the officers.

"I won' hear about 'any of my business' from you, sir! I'll have ye know that this woman is widowed with four young children and unable te afford the taxes that ye nasty English raised to impossible prices!" Katie spat back. She spat on the ground in disgust. "Ye've done yer duty, now off with ye!"

"We ought to teach that horrid girl a lesson!" exclaimed one of the British soldiers, pulling out his saber.

"Put it away, Sergeant," said the soldier who had first spoken to Katie. "You're quite brave to speak to an officer like that. With one swipe of his sword, you could be lying on the ground dead."

"Ye wouldn' dare, Watson. Not when ye have a daughter of me own age back in England. If I remember correctly, ye stated that I reminded ye of her. Free-spirited, rebellious and rather bold," Katie spat back.

"Don't take it from her, Colonel!" shouted the Sergeant who had originally wanted to hit her with his sword.

"Remember yourself, Sergeant," said Colonel Watson. "We are not here to kill, we are here to evict. We must be on our way now. Good day to you, ladies." Without another word, Colonel Watson rode off on his horse, the other soldiers following.

"Filthy Irish scum!" exclaimed the Sergeant, who was like one of the other soldiers on foot.

"_Teacht le dom, bean. Muid tá áit le haghaidh tú chun fanacht_," said Katie in the native Gaelic tongue. The young woman nodded and followed her to the cottage. The British sergeant glared in her direction before following the other walking soldiers. Until Mary O'Hara confirmed that the soldiers were far away, Katie led the young widow and her children down into the cellar.


	4. Chapter 3

On the evening of Scarlett's departure – which had been the same evening of their argument – Rhett returned to his mother's home in Charleston and rushed up to the bedroom that had been his before Scarlett arrived. He burst in without even bothering to knock and ready to throw his pride aside and take his beloved Scarlett in his arms. It broke his heart when he saw that everything that had been hers was gone, and on one of the side tables was a note. He picked it up and read it carefully, and in one of those rare occasions, Rhett Butler broke down and wept, his heart broken in two.

The note had said _'I've left for good, so now you can return to your bedroom. I am not telling you where I am going, so now you're free to do whatever it is that pleases you. I no longer am a part of your life, nor do I want to be. With love, Scarlett'_

…

"Watch out, then!" came Katie's voice from behind a stone wall. Her hands appeared on the very top and she pulled herself up, her brown face appearing over the top. "Over here, Patrick! You're goin' te break it!"

"Got it!" exclaimed the young man named Patrick. "All right, then, boys, over the wall to Katie and the others." They were handing down an old mattress for a bed to a group of boys and Katie down a steep hill that rested below a low stone boarder. Hidden nearby was an entrance to an underground cave that held more people than Katie could count. She didn't know the approximate number of residents in the clan, but she did know that there were enough to accommodate the entire steerage section of a ship. There had to be over a hundred, maybe more than two or three hundred. The reason for the mattress was that Katie had received a telegram from Galway that within the next few days, they would be getting a new resident.

It had already been a month since the eviction of the young woman with her children. The woman was named Siobhan Kelly and she took well with the other clan members. Katie was fond of her and her children, and Siobhan Kelly was forever grateful that Katie put them in a home to live. There were so many children in the clan as well that her children could play with and make friends with.

"Not too fast!" Katie exclaimed as Patrick and the boys above pushed the mattress over the wall.

"I don't see why we couldn' fit this in yer cellar, Katie Colum," said one of the boys beneath the mattress.

"Me cellar is too small, Miles," Katie told him. "Don't go too fast and don' go too slow either! We'll be attractin' attention te ourselves!"

"As if we aren' doin' that already!" exclaimed another boy from underneath the mattress. The boys with the mattress pushed it over the wall and the boys and Katie caught it and carried it to a hidden entrance while the other boys jumped down from the ledge and the mattress was out of sight.

…

A covered carriage bumped along a dirt road, the driver of the carriage nearly falling from his perch. He pulled out a pocket watch to check the time, and nodded to himself when he saw that he was making good time. Inside of the carriage, a man of thirty years or so was looking out the window, his grey-tinted dark hair in a mess on his head.

"We're nearing the town, Scarlett darling," he said, and he turned to the woman that was sharing his carriage. Scarlett smiled at him, glancing out the window and getting excited at the beautiful hillside.

"Oh, Colum, it's so beautiful!" Scarlett exclaimed, and Colum laughed at her innocence.

"It is, Scarlett darling, it is indeed," he said. "If yer wonderin' where we're goin', we're headed to a place near the beautiful hills of Tara that doesn' lie in a designated town. It's among a large clan livin' beneath a small cottage. There, ye'll meet the girl whom I consider me niece. A fine girl, that Katie Colum is."

"Is she not your niece?" asked Scarlett with curiosity.

"Not quite. More a cousin than a niece, but she considers me close enough ta call me her uncle. Kind of like her uncle Joseph, whom she lives with," Colum replied.

"Oh," said Scarlett. They were silent the rest of the way, until Colum announced the arrival of the carriage at the cottage. He leapt out, helped Scarlett down and paid the driver. As the driver drove away, Mary O'Hara appeared in the top half of the door.

"Colum! Colum, ye've returned! Joseph, Katie! Colum's returned!" Mary exclaimed, running out and giving Colum a tight hug.

"Good afternoon, Mary! How's the farm doin', then?" asked Colum once Mary released him.

"Everythin's fine! With the boys helpin' out, not a single bit of the crop gets missed," Mary told him.

"Colum!" came a cry from a younger girl from the doorway, and Scarlett looked up to see a girl with raven black hair and tanned skin racing from the doorway and into Colum's waiting arms.

"Katie Colum, ye crazy Irish lass! If I missed anyone on me trip to America, 'twas you I missed the most!" Colum said to her, and he kissed her forehead.

"I'd say I missed ye most of all in the clan as well," Katie said, and she let go of Colum.

"I'd like ye ta meet me cousin – our cousin – Mrs. Katie Scarlett O'Hara," Colum told her.

"_Dia duit_," said Katie in Gaelic tongue, holding out her tanned hand in a friendly greeting. Scarlett was shocked when she first laid eyes on Katie. Her tanned face and raven black hair reminded her so much of Rhett, and her gleaming white smile stuck out like a golden sunflower in a patch of white daisies. At the same time, Katie resembled herself, with her vivid green eyes, almond-shaped eyes and small, upturned nose.

"Um… Hello," said Scarlett, taking her hand and shaking it.

"I take it that ye don' do such things as a simple hand shake in America? Why, you Americans have such strange ways!" Katie exclaimed, her smile never fading. "Well, what are we all doin' standin' around? The boys are waitin' ta see ya down in the _uaimh_." Katie turned and headed to the cellar of the house, opening the doors and climbing down into it.

"The what?" asked Scarlett to Colum.

"The _uaimh_. It's Irish for 'cave'," Colum told her, and he took her hand and led her down into the cellar. Sitting at a desk was an elderly man putting together some sort of device, and he looked up as soon as Scarlett and Colum walked in.

"Ach, it be Colum O'Hara! Yer late, boyo!" the man exclaimed, standing.

"_Dia duit_ to you, too, Joseph!" said Colum, shaking the man's hand.

"Well, everyone's been lookin' fer ya, Colum. They'll throw a party with yer return! Just follow The O'Hara down-"

"That's 'Butler' to you, Uncle!" Katie told him. Scarlett looked at her with a surprised expression. "What? Me surname's Butler, not O'Hara. The couple that owns this cottage are me aunt and uncle." As the realization that Katie Colum Butler was, indeed, the same Katherine Ellen Butler born in November of 1854 after her affair with Rhett, Scarlett's mouth fell open in shock. Katie raised her hand and closed Scarlett's mouth. "Ye'll catch flies that way. Come on, then. Colum'll catch up." She turned and dug out a rope that was hidden behind some shelves and pulled. The door swung open and Scarlett walked in, followed by Katie who grabbed a lit lamp and closed the door.

The tunnel was dark and musky, and the only source of light was emanating from Katie's lamp. "Katie," asked Scarlett, "If that woman isn't your mother, then who is?"

"An American woman. One whom I haven' met before," Katie replied.

"Oh," said Scarlett. "Were you born as Katie Colum Butler?"

"No, I was born as Katherine Ellen Butler, but me auntie changed my name to Katie Colum. She tried to get it changed to O'Hara, but I wouldn' hear of it," Katie told her.

"I had a daughter who bore that name… I was sixteen at the time of her birth. She was conceived from an affair I had with a man whose surname was Butler. I was forced to claim that I was raped so as to protect both her and myself. It was my mother who demanded that she be sent to my O'Hara relatives in Savannah, but I have no idea what happened to her after that," Scarlett said. She didn't know it, but Katie's expression changed dramatically as the realization dawned on her as well.

"Ye ought ta be proud of your Katherine Ellen… She's become a strong leader in County Meath alone," Katie said.

"A strong leader? Of a rebellion? Katie, you're far too young…" Katie stopped and turned to her.

"Too young? I am sixteen years of age and was passed on the role of clan leader by me deceased uncle in his will. I've proven ta be a strong leader and have kept hundreds of people safe and sheltered fer many years, especially while me uncle was away on business," she said to her mother. Scarlett could clearly see the resemblance in her teenaged daughter. Scarlett nodded, understanding everything.

"You were thrust into a difficult life… You're a very strong girl indeed, Katie," she told her, and Katie nodded.

"Too strong," Katie told her, and she continued on her way. "They say we've received new refugees from Dublin. All burned and beaten and left to die by the English. That is what we are fightin' for. An Ireland free from the English where we don' have ta fear them."

"Oh," said Scarlett. "You're such a kind-hearted person for taking in all of those people."

"Don' call me by a name of which I am not," Katie told her. They came to a wooden door after about ten more minutes of silent walking through winding tunnels, and Katie knocked on it three times on the top and twice on the bottom with her foot. She looked at Scarlett, lowing the lamp so it didn't blind them. "Welcome to the clan." A rustling sound was heard on the other side of the door and the door opened, flooding the tunnel with light.


	5. Chapter 4

As the door opened, the dark and musky tunnel was filled with light and warmth from the cave inside. In the doorway stood a young man around Katie's age with reddish-brown curly hair that stopped just below his ears and blue eyes that were the color of the Irish sky after a summer storm. He was smiling a very friendly Irish smile, and his face brightened as soon as he set his summery sky blue eyes on Katie.

"Katie Colum! Welcome back below the depths of County Meath's heart!" the young boy exclaimed, and Katie laughed.

"Christopher McKinnon, yer bound ta get yerself out of any kind of trouble with that charmin' smile o' yers!" she told him, and she walked through the doorway as the boy stepped aside.

"Top o' the mornin' to ye, Miss!" said Christopher McKinnon to Scarlett, nodding to her and flashing his charming smile at her.

"Um… hello," said Scarlett, not knowing the proper reply. Katie laughed again, much like Rhett would have done.

"The proper response would be, 'And the rest of the day to you'," Katie told her. Scarlett nodded.

"I'll remember that for next time," Scarlett said, smiling at both her daughter and at Christopher McKinnon.

"What is this I hear of refugees from Dublin?" Katie asked Christopher once the laughter subsided and the door was closed.

"Oh, not just Dublin, lass, from all over. Mostly from Meath. We've got refugees from towns like Trim, Adamstown and Ballivor," Christopher told her.

"Oh, dear… How many?" Katie asked.

"Dunno fer sure. Nearly forty, if I remember correctly," said Christopher.

"Ach… Do we have the room?" Katie asked him.

"_Is ea_, Katie Colum, with that new system of tunnels ye had us begin last spring," Christopher replied. They now stood on the bottom of a stone staircase. Scarlett remained at the top, gaping at what she was seeing. The cave was more than a cave; it was a giant home for hundreds of people! All around her, Scarlett heard Irish accents of men, women and children and behind her and around the cave walls were Irish family crests bearing the surnames of families in the clan – Butler, O'Hara, Kelly, McKinnon, McLough, O'Brien, O'Reilly, Ruairic, McBain, Murray – and they all looked pristine and shiny. On the opposite wall, a large green banner with a golden Celtic harp and golden stars surrounding it sat cascading down the stones.

"_Máthair_!" came Katie's voice from below, and Scarlett looked down at her.

"What did you call me?" asked Scarlett as she descended the stairs.

"_Máthair_," said Katie. "It's Gaelic for 'mother'."

"Oh," said Scarlett, smiling. She liked hearing her daughter calling her 'mother', even if it was in a language that she didn't understand.

"Welcome to the clan, _máthair_," said Katie. "In this clan, we all speak English, though yer bound ta hear Gaelic tongue all around ye. There are many people fer ye ta meet, such as Christopher McKinnon here."

"_Dia duit, bean_," said Christopher, taking her hand and kissing it. "Ye sure are a beautiful remedy fer me sore eyes, as is yer kind and _álainn iníon_." Christopher looked at Katie and smiled at her, and Katie looked at Scarlett.

"If ye are confused, his greetin' was 'hello, ma'am' and 'e called me yer 'beautiful daughter'," Katie told her.

"Oh, all right. The Irish have such pretty names for things!" Scarlett exclaimed. "Katie, darling – oh, how do I say that?"

"_Aroon_," said Katie.

"Katie, _aroon_, you'll have to teach me how to talk Gaelic!" Scarlett finished, and Katie laughed.

"If ye don' learn it yerself from the other women," said Katie. "They're fascinated with Americans."

"And I'm already fascinated with the Irish!" Scarlett exclaimed, and Katie laughed once again. "Well, I must leave you with Siobhan Kelly. She's the blonde woman dressed in _dubh_ over there with the _leanbh_."

"With the what? The baby?" Scarlett asked, and Katie nodded.

"I'll return shortly. Siobhan will show ya yer room," she said, and she left.

"_Leanbh_," said Scarlett. "Lahn-ov… Lahn-ov… _Leanbh_! Simple! I'll be speaking Gaelic in no time!" Scarlett strode confidently over to the woman dressed in black – a widow, she presumed – and tapped her shoulder.

"Di-eh Dweet!" Scarlett said, and the widow laughed.

"If ye are tryin' ta say hello, it is pronounced 'dee-ah dwit'," said the woman whose name was Siobhan, and Scarlett blushed.

"Oh… Well, _dia duit_, then," said Scarlett.

"Oh, ye've made me feel so much more _sona_, or happy, since me husband passed," said Siobhan with a smile.

"Well, I'm glad," said Scarlett. Suddenly, she started to get a strange feeling in her stomach.

"Oh, are ye all right, _cara_? Yer lookin' a little _glas_," said Siobhan, referring to her slightly green face, and before she could stop herself, Scarlett's stomach heaved and she threw up all over the floor. Siobhan jumped back in shock as Scarlett heaved again and fell to her knees.

"I… I am so sorry…" Scarlett said to her in a tired voice. "I… I had no idea… that… that would… would happen."

"Oh, _cara_, it's all right," said Siobhan, placing her free hand on Scarlett's alabaster cheek. "I've had four babies. Imagine how many times I've gotten mornin' sickness." Scarlett's green eyes stared up at her with shock, and they went wide with realization. Could it be true? It had been a month since she and Rhett had made love… But what if it was something that she had eaten? Scarlett's eyes also went wide with fear; what if, after the accident down the stairs, she couldn't have any more babies and she would die? She had to talk to a doctor, and soon. Very, very soon.


	6. Chapter 5

Below County Meath, everyone – especially Scarlett – was shielded from the horrors of the English, but above ground, no one was spared. Katie was glared and scowled at by many English soldiers who knew her and her sharp tongue, and in response, Katie always glared back. Occasionally, she would walk through the market in nearby Adamstown and smile and wave sweetly at the English soldiers that watched her. Her boldness would shock them, but Katie enjoyed every moment of it. Her boldness was what kept the British away from her aunt and uncle's cottage, and as long as they were away from the cottage, they ere away from her clan. This went on for three months, and then Scarlett joined her company.

"Katie, _aroon_, what's happening?" Scarlett whispered to Katie quietly.

"Just smile sweetly at them," Katie replied, smiling and waving at a group of soldiers. They disbanded with expressions of shock and disgust on their faces. Scarlett had, not long after her episode in the cave, been confirmed pregnant, and she couldn't have been happier. Now Rhett had to come back for her! Her pregnancy was showing very prominently, but she was only through three of the nine months of her pregnancy. It surprised her, the size of her ever-expanding belly. Katie had sent Scarlett with a basket to find some potatoes and cabbage, while she herself hunted for bread. A young English soldier dressed in red military garb carefully approached her, oblivious to her identity.

"Good morning, young miss," he said in his English accent.

"Top o' the mornin' said Katie in response, not daring to meet his eyes.

You're a very beautiful girl, even if you are Irish," said the soldier.

"I will try not ta be insulted by that comment," said Katie monotonously.

"Oh, er… I'm sorry. I apologize deeply," said the soldier. "Might I ask your name?"

"Katie O'Hara," said Katie, lying about her name. Katie Colum Butler was a very notorious person among all English soldiers, and not only because of her sharp tongue.

"Well, Miss O'Hara, you're still a very beautiful girl," said the soldier. "I am William Dover, for the record."

"The record bearin' yer name, Mr. William Dover, shall be imprinted in me mind," said Katie, gathering some rolls and paying for them.

"Shall I help you carry these?" asked William Dover, seeing her struggle with the long loafs and rolls.

"No! Heavens, no!" Katie exclaimed, looking up at him. She saw his confusion and sighed. "Me mother… she's terrified of soldiers. Always has been. I shan't ever know why."

"Ah… that is understandable," said William Dover. "I shall take my leave, then. Farewell, Miss O'Hara."

"And the rest of the day to you," Katie told him, watching him leave. She jumped when Scarlett tapped her shoulder and nearly dropped her bread.

"Katie, why were you talking to that soldier?" she asked her daughter.

"'e was interrogatin' me, but he shan't know a thing about the clan," Katie told her in a hushed whisper. "Did ya get the _prátaí agus cabáiste_?"

"Praw-what and caboyishe?" asked Scarlett, clearly mispronouncing the words. Katie laughed, which annoyed Scarlett. "And what's so funny, Katie Colum?"

"It is pronounced 'praw-tee' for 'potatoes' and 'cah-boi-shta' for 'cabbages'," Katie told her, and Scarlett blushed.

"Oh… of course it is. And yes, _aroon_, I did get them," Scarlett said, and the two women started walking back to the cottage. "Katie, you'll have to teach me Gaelic. How do you say 'basket'?"

"_Ciseán_," said Katie. "Pronounced 'kee-shawn'."

"Kee-shoon?" asked Scarlett.

"No, no. Kee-shawn," said Katie.

"Kee…. Shawn… _Ciseán_?"

"Aye! Ye've got it!"

"Now, how do you say 'dress'?"

"_Gúna_."

"Oh, that one is so easy. I bet it sounds exactly the way it's spelled." Katie laughed.

"Indeed, _máthair_, it is! Now, there might be some in the clan that ye haven' met yet that speak only Gaelic. To introduce yourself, ye should say yer name first. Repeat after me: _Dia duit! Scarlett is ainim dom_."

"Could you repeat that?"

"Certainly. Dee-ah gwit! Scarlett is ah-nim dum."

"_Dia duit… Scarlett is… ainim dom_?"

"Indeed! That is how ye say, 'hello, my name is…'. Somethin' else ye migh' want te say is, 'how are you', which is pronounced as 'coh-nas tah too'."

"_Conas tá tú_?"

"Aye, _conas tá tú_," said Katie. "I would respond saying, 'Lohm a vei goh mahr'."

"Lhiohm… ah… vee go march?" Scarlett asked, and Katie burst into fits of laughter.

"No, no! Lohm ah vei goh mahr," she told her.

"Lohm ah… vei goh… mahr…" said Scarlett.

"_Is ea! Liom a bheith go maith_!" Katie exclaimed.

"Learning Gaelic is going to be a lot harder than I thought…" said Scarlett, and they continued on their way.

…

A man walked casually along the Irish countryside, completely oblivious to the ominous clouds overhead. He walked with a purpose and with determination in each step, but one thing he didn't expect was Katie's horse to spook. Her horse, Ocras, was deathly afraid of frogs, so when one crossed his path, Ocras went into a panic. He ran for the hills and leapt over sheep, fences and walls, and it was when Ocras leapt a certain stone wall that Katie was thrown for the first time, Ocras nearly hitting the man walking along the countryside.

"My God! Are you all right, miss?" the man asked, rushing to her side and helping her sit up.

"_Is ea_, I'm fine!" Katie told him, sitting up on her own. She looked up into the man's face and was surprised to see almost her own looking back at her. The man was dark-skinned, had dark eyes, raven black hair and a pencil-thin moustache. Katie was sure that he was an American, especially after hearing part of his accent. The man muttered something, and then shook his head.

"Sorry… You just remind me of someone," he said, looking away. There was a distant tone in his voice.

"Ye headed somewhere?" Katie asked him, still sitting on the ground.

"A place to stay, if I can find one," said the man, standing. He held out a hand to help her, which she gladly took, and pulled her to stand. "Do you know of any?"

"Me family's cottage. It's a little ways down the road, but not far. We have plenty of room," Katie told him.

"Oh, but I don't want to intrude…" said the man.

"As long as yer anti-English, yer fine with me aunt and uncle," said Katie. "Follow me, then." She turned and began walking down the road, and the man followed. "Say, what's yer name?"

"Rhett Butler," said the man.

"Oh? We migh' be related, then. _Katie Butler is ainim dom_," said Katie. She giggled at Rhett's confused expression. "It is Gaelic, for 'Katie Butler is my name'."

"Ah… It's weird, you kind of remind me of myself… How old are you?" Rhett asked her.

"Sixteen. Well, almost sixteen… in a month, I will be," Katie told him.

"Your mother doesn't happen to be an American with a crazy sense of fashion, is she?" asked Rhett, and Katie laughed.

"She was… It cracks me up, how casual ye both are with me," she said to him.

"Is she here? That's what I would like to know…" Rhett said, and Katie nodded.

"_Is ea_, she is. I'd have ta talk ta her firs' before lettin' ye in, though, if ya don' mind," Katie told him.

"That's fine. I don't want her to be too surprised," Rhett replied.

"Oh, yer in for quite a few surprises…" Katie muttered. "It's quicker this way. Follow me, then." She turned down a thinner path that went through the woods. "This is called a _boreen_, by the way."

"You Irish have interesting names for things…" said Rhett to himself, and Katie laughed, having heard him and agreeing.


End file.
